For the Everyday Ordinary...

"Normal Day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all in the world, for your return." ~ Mary Jean Iron

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Goodbye to an old friend...

Yesterday we had to have our Bradford pear tree cut down.

It started about 2 summers ago when a heavy wind brought down several large branches. Then last August, a freaky wind storm took down another bunch of branches, making the tree look horrible and lopsided.

Still, we loved our pear tree. We had had it for 15 years.

I sat under it on a quilt with my grandson, David, reading to him and playing with him while we waited for his mama to get home from work (sadly, I have no photos of this).

When he got a little older, we'd set up a small wading pool under the tree.

Later, we chased bubbles.

Our little granddaughters never got a chance to play under it. Our oldest granddaughter, Rosa, had just begun to visit us without her mama last spring before they moved across the country. Evelyn wasn't ready to be away from her mama yet.

A few weeks ago we had an arborist out to look at the tree (and others in our yard). He said it was in pretty bad shape, but since we didn't want to have it cut down, he'd come back and trim it up. Yesterday he arrived and looked at it again, then showed me two more fractures in the trunk where more branches were getting ready to come down with the next big wind - only this time, the branches would come through our front windows. Not. Good.

A decision had to be made.

=(

He assured us that our beloved pear tree was at the end of its life cycle, so we made the decision to have it taken down.

At first I told the guys I wasn't going to watch, but then I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures.

I couldn't just let our tree be cut down with out the final photos for our memories! This is from my bedroom window - the branches and leaves were actually up against the windows and along the roof and gutter above. Every time it moved, it made an awful noise along the gutter and would squeal across the window.

It only took about 15 minutes to go from giant shade tree to nothing but a stump...

Going...

...going...

...gone.

=(

I did keep a part of the stump that was cut so that I could do something with it - what, I don't know yet, but I will figure something out. They also ground the stump - we now have a little patch of mulch in the spot where our tree once stood.

Wow - so open now! I forgot how big the sky was from my front door!

The view is totally different from my bedroom now.

It is sad for us, but we will be planting another tree there - hopefully this weekend! A maple this time - one that will outlast us.

On a happy note, the upstairs is flooded with light - while we loved the shade and privacy it provided us, we are also enjoying the openness and light that is coming into the house now.

3 comments:

Very sorry to hear about your pear tree Donna, but it seems as though it must have been for the best. So many memories. We had a tree that had died and was messing with the power lines in front of the house. The city came and took it down. There was a not so good memory associated with that tree however, when a young man who'd been in a car accident just down our road came running to our door. He was so upset and hysterical he climbed all the way up that tree. Unfortunately his friend had passed away in that accident.

Sorry, I don't know why I just told you such a depressing story LOL! It just came to mind. That was about 16 years ago now anyhow. But on a lighter note, what a beautiful home you have! And now the tree is not obscuring it :)

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